I went to my new doctor today. As he was drawing blood and talking about whether or not I was going to have another baby (no), I mentioned I was a little worried about my hearing. Pa is sporting hearing aids these days, but we've known he can't hear for a while. Blondie can't hear over the ear w...

Yesterday longtime reader Dawna commented: You guys look HAPPY. Not just Smile for the Camera happy, but Life is Good happy. It meant a lot, and it also made me realize how different my outlook on life is now than it was in the past. Growing up, I was something of a pessimist (or as I termed i...

Bella Simone Arens 2002-2009 For the little angel Bella in her prime weighed over 14 pounds. But she wore it well. Bella enjoyed long walks on the beach and the works of T.S. Eliot. The neighbors laughed when I took her outside on a leash. She lacked opposable thumbs, rendering her ...

I'm a Libertarian. In theory, I support an individual's right to screw him or herself up however they see fit.
But having just recently discovered that one of my closest friends from college died of a drug overdose - and her drug use began with marijuana - I'm not so sure anymore.
I don't know what the solution is. But it's really hard to personally know one of the casualties. I'm really glad you weren't one of them, and I admire you for sharing your story here.

Drug Addiction. Just typing these words brings back painful memories that I want to forget. Believe me, I wish I could forget..... When I was in college, I (ahem) smoked marijuana. A lot. There, I said it. It is now out there for the entire world to know. Along with a gazillion other coll...

Do your friends ever ask silly questions, such as "You like to write? Why don't you just publish a book?" Questions that make you want to throttle them and leave them for dead five miles from home? Is that just me? One of my favorite nonwriter questions is: "Doesn't everyone know how to write? W...

A big round of applause for Tracey and Katie at Sweetblog for tranforming Surrender, Dorothy from a Typepad blog to a writer platform. All hail! (Editor's Note: I don't have to say this. I did pay them.) When I went to Tracey and Katie, I knew I wanted to change Surrender, Dorothy both aesth...

It's Saturday night. I have on my skinny jeans, a tank top and a sassy black shrug, I'm having a great hair night and I feel fantastic! We are hosting a post-dinner surprise party for my Mother-in-Law's 75th birthday. We've spent weeks planning, organizing, inviting (the old-fashioned way ...

(Applauding)
I don't much care for Oprah, so I didn't watch. But I can imagine her take on the topic was devised mainly by her producers (read: under-/mis-informed).
I also wholeheartedly support your call for us to end the self-deprecation and unnecessary apologies. Hear hear!

By now you’ve probably heard that several mom bloggers were on Oprah. It was exciting to see our favorite bloggers on TV. The stories on the show were laugh-out-loud funny, and the women witty and intelligent. Still, it was obvious that Oprah doesn’t understand mom bloggers from the moment she...

My son is going to prom this year, even though he's only a sophomore. Technically, you need to be a junior or senior to get in - unless an upperclassman, or in his case, an upperclasswoman asks you. He'll be the arm-candy for a senior girl I've never met. Sources tell me she's smart, pretty an...

When my wallet was stolen in New Jersey, my first thought was, "Oh god, I don't want to have to go to the freaking DMV!"
Not "oh, my money!" or "oh, my credit cards!" Nope, a trip to the NJ DMV is far, far worse.
I'm sorry. Happy birthday anyway.

A month ago, I received notice from the California DMV that I need to take a written test to renew my drivers license . I assumed that it was because I was turning 40. Makes sense.... they want to make sure I still knew the rules of the road. So this past week I went online, studied (and stu...

D, I love this post because I think this is a huge part of mothers' complaints that many don't acknowledge. Leave him be! Maybe he won't do everything exactly as you do it, but is that so wrong?
It took me a couple months with our first child to let go of that control. I can hardly imagine hanging on for years and years. And you're right; it's good for both parents, as well as kids, to let go.

Recently a trend has emerged in some families that seems to be stealing away precious chatting time with my girlfriends. We can't seem to stop talking about this problem. The majority of my friends stay at home full time, a decision that was made unique to each family. We are happy to represen...

Yesterday morning, as I sat down to blearily scan the online headlines with my first cup of coffee, a story caught my eye: "One-armed TV host scares kids, parents." The gist of the story is that the BBC has hired a young woman with an arm that ends in a stump as the co-host of a nightly toddle...

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Betch, Julie of Mothergoosemouse Of all the ridiculous mass-market paperback fluff that was never fit to print, Confessions of a Shopaholic is at the top of my hate parade. I slogged through the book, vainly hoping for a hint ...

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Betch, Julie of Mothergoosemouse Of all the ridiculous mass-market paperback fluff that was never fit to print, Confessions of a Shopaholic is at the top of my hate parade. I slogged through the book, vainly hoping for a hint ...

Beloved is getting a vasectomy as I write this post out, longhand, in my writing notebook. I don't travel with a laptop, don't like toting it around, so I find myself writing posts in airports and waiting rooms on paper, seeing my handwriting again, a forgotten part of me waving from the past, b...

Yeah, where it comes to the kids, we just laugh at what it says to them: "Oh how ridiculous! You can't be 22 already. Unless maybe...you want a beer?"
And I laugh at it sometimes myself too. "Too busy to workout yesterday, eh JULIE?" it chides. "Yeah, I went to the gym and ran five miles. Silly balance board, you don't even have feet! Nyah nyah nyah!"
I never said I was mature about it. ;)

For Christmas this year our family got a Wii. It has been so fun to have it around to play with the kids on snowy days. (Okay, sunny ones too) I of course, in my attempt to follow some pre-set resolution of losing weight, ran right out looking for WiiFit. Wouldn't you know it, the kids have pl...

Even though I enjoy skiing, the logistics overwhelm me. Not to mention the expense. Whoa.
I love that you have a name for the cloudless skies. I grew up in Ohio, but my father was an Academy grad, so we always referred to a cloudless sky as a "Colorado sky" - much rarer there in the midwest.

Late Thursday evening, my husband casually mentioned to me the opportunity to head up to the mountains for the weekend. I jumped at the chance, as I am always interested in a little getaway. More importantly escaping the duties of home, laundry, dishes, cooking, a birthday party, and even a me...

It's Friday. It's 3 p.m. I'd planned to be done writing by now, to have picked up Bella from the vet, to be at the gym preparing to meet Steph for dinner. I'd planned to have crossed a lot more off my list by now. As usual, my list is bigger than my brain. I'm slowing down. I cherish these writ...

Somehow, I got a free subscription to Parenting magazine - it just started showing up at my house a few months after my son was born, sort of like the new mother version of AARP's magazine suddenly arriving once you hit 50. Recently, Parenting ran an article about some very angry mamas. And ...

Nothing puts life into perspective quite as fast as the sight of your husband lying unconscious on the bathroom floor. Less than a minute ago, you were talking about tonight's carpool. He agreed to do the pick up. You gave him the details, then went back to the kitchen for another cup of coff...

In this episode, Dr. Arens treats two bears who unexpectedly show up in the ER on a slow Sunday afternoon. Although Dr. Arens has permissions at Seattle Grace, she prefers the Arens Living Room ER for its proximity, convenience, and NICU. First there was Ski Bear. Patient symptoms o...

I was kind of shocked when they totaled me up, smiled sweetly and said "That will be one hundred and sixty five dollars". It shouldn't surprise me, but for some reason it always does that sitting in a chair for two hours can cost that much. Doesn't even matter. She could tell me that she was dou...

Very glad she's okay. And you too.
I had the same reaction to that same passage in Eden's post. Catharsis takes time and energy, and sometimes a catalyst like an ER trip and a Grey's Anatomy episode, but it can really clean out your system.

Yesterday was my day to go to the gym after work. As I grunted away on the elliptical machine, I looked up and saw a fly trapped in the fluorescent light above my head. It was an office-style light, so the fly was walking around on a frosted plastic panel about three inches from the bulbs. I ...